Chapter 23, Day 1 of the Competition

[I've fallen in love with more than six streamers today alone, Juyu, how am I supposed to choose?!]

Those actors who were eager to get their hands on the short dramas from Giant Entertainment must be kicking themselves now, probably frantically submitting their resumes for the second batch of live streamer recruitment.

[The top six not only have short drama opportunities, but also offline meet-and-greets and magazine shoots. Taomi, get ready to level up! Mom will definitely vote you in!]

[Can anyone point me to Cheng Jinyu's fan group? My wallet is ready!]

Isn't this champion's reward a bit too much? Not only does he have a private dressing room and assistant, but he also gets commercial endorsements from three of the top 100 companies in the Star Federation and a month-long offline screen in the Federation's central square. Even second-tier artists can't get this level of resources nowadays...

When will Juyu launch its second round of livestreamer recruitment? Let's take a look at our hapless 05!

[A hybrid of boy and girl group auditions and an annual election, comparable to an 800x speed version. Fang Ge, you know what I want to see. A ten-year veteran show fan is already eagerly waiting.]

Thankfully, this group at Juyu is all comprised of small-time, self-employed livestreamers. At least there aren't any ugly, capitalist kids with bland, unattractive faces forcing their way into my aesthetic sensibilities.

[Can someone just punch me unconscious right now? I really want to wake up five days in the future.]

[I don't understand what everyone's expecting. This is just a super low-budget draft.]

[The champion's reward is just a gimmick; in the end, the resources the streamer actually receives are lucky if they get half the value.]

Do you even know what it means to have a large offline screen in the Federal Center Plaza that lasts for a month? Even the top celebrities in the entertainment industry only book a screen for a week at most for their birthdays.

Those who hype this up have probably never been fans. They'll probably just symbolically book a day to appease the fans. Anyway, such fervent praise is naturally mindless and indulgent. ^^

[If you like criticizing so much, then don't watch.]

[Whether I watch it or not is none of your business! I'm going to click in and see just how bad it is!]

[+1, Live-streamed competitions are much cheaper to organize than talent shows; Fang Gege is really good at achieving big results with small investments. ...

Could it be said that Zhou Zongyun from the sixth group is the only one with decent looks? He could have become popular even without the group's broadcast.

The official post had just been released when Fang Zhuo stood in front of the big screen and watched the latest comments with the commenter.

Their gaze fell on several comments that were pessimistic about the competition. A staff member asked, "Mr. Fang, should we turn on the protection mode?"

Fang Zhuo waved his hand.

The purpose of this post is to generate buzz. It's normal for there to be skepticism in the comments section. A few different voices can actually pique the curiosity of other viewers.

He also had some recollection of Zhou Zongyun, mentioned in the last comment—during the job interview, two people sat in the last row with an unusually high loyalty score of 2, clearly indicating something was amiss.

Fang Zhuo didn't really care whether these two people were sent by Ruan Zihan or not.

Once someone is sent here, they can make money for him in this mode. If the opposing team wants to get Zhou Zongyun into the top six, they will definitely have to spend far more than initially expected.

Anyway, if Ruan Zihan invests 100,000, Fang Zhuo can receive a corresponding tenfold return of one million. There is no business that is more satisfying than taking money from the other company.

These small-time streamers don't usually have access to any core information. Even if they do manage to capture some so-called "dirt" on the fringes, they can turn negative press into real buzz.

With Ruan Zihan's sharp mind, Fang Zhuo was quite curious about what the other party would use to make a fuss this time.

At 2 a.m., with no other new developments in public opinion, the staff responsible for the distribution of the food finished eating the two large boxes of late-night snacks, turned off their physical computers, and strolled back to the company dormitory in twos and threes.

Someone posted the shift schedule for the past few days in the group broadcast scheduling group. The employees who worked late tonight can take a day off tomorrow according to the rules.

Immediately, a large number of people in the group replied "received". Fang Zhuo then sent more than ten red envelopes containing 10,000 yuan each to the group. Even the unluckiest person could grab more than 1,000 yuan.

Lying on the two-meter-wide bed in the company dormitory, Zhou Zongyun happily snatched more than three thousand yuan and sent the screenshot to his brothers who joined Juyu with him to show off.

Zhou Zongyun: [Dude, how much did you get?]

Yu Yu: [Why should I claim Juyu's red envelope if I didn't claim it?]

Yu Yu: [Bro, are you thinking of betraying us...? If it weren't for Brother Ruan, neither of us would have a chance to get into the industry. Don't you feel any guilt at all?]

[Besides, we've already received a deposit of 600,000. If we can get useful information from Juyu, Brother Ruan will definitely settle the remaining 1 million for us later. There's really no need to be greedy for this small amount of money now.]

[Starlight Media is more than ten times the size of Giant Entertainment. Starlight has been established for five years, while Giant Entertainment has only been established for less than a month... You should at least think about your own future. I'm only telling you this for your own good. I wouldn't say such heartfelt things to anyone else.]

Looking at the chat history, Zhou Zongyun's joy at having just received a large red envelope vanished.

With a "ding," a notification popped up on the personal terminal, showing that there was a new transaction on the bank card.

He initially thought it was a credit card bill notification for the month, but when he opened it, he found it was a transfer of over 130,000 yuan, with the note indicating it was his daily salary for today's live stream.

The entertainment industry is notorious for its severe wage suppression. Let alone daily pay, it's considered good if last month's earnings are paid by the end of next month. This is the first time he has received such immediate feedback.

He originally thought that the so-called 90/10 split when signing the contract with Juyu was all a lie. After all, given the current ecosystem of Xingyu, it would be considered that the company was conscientious if a newcomer could get 30% of the income.

Zhou Zongyun didn't expect that Juyu really gave the vast majority of its revenue to the streamers. The appendix even included a detailed list of large gifts to help them check whether the gifts and wages roughly matched.

The "typing" icon next to Yu Yu's avatar in the chat box disappeared, replaced by a long silence.

Five minutes later, Zhou Zongyun sent a message: [Brother, how many did you receive?]

Yu Yu: [Uh, nearly two hundred thousand]

Unlike his cold tone when he was trying to persuade her, Yu Yu's reply was followed by a fox spinning in circles emoji.

The two remained in an awkward silence for a while, then Zhou Zongyun replied: [Dude, why don't you just claim the red envelope in the group chat?]

Yu Yu: [Yeah~~]

The next day, Zhou Zongyun's group was scheduled to start broadcasting at four o'clock in the afternoon. He ironed the costume from yesterday's performance neatly, carefully packed it into the box, and took it into the dressing room.

When it was his turn to get his makeup done, the stylist just glanced at the clothes in the box and casually asked, "Why did you all bring yesterday's clothes here?"

Zhou Zongyun was somewhat taken aback: "Ah, weren't we supposed to use it today?"

Liu Xiaolan held a huge notebook in her hand with more than a dozen sketches of different looks. She said casually, "I won't need them. We'll be changing looks today. The scenes and looks will be different every day."

Zhou Zongyun was completely stunned by Juyu's wealth: "Don't we need to return this outfit to the company? I saw it online and it's very expensive, it seems to be a luxury brand, a set costs thirty or forty thousand..."

A gentle brush swept across his face, and every word the stylist spoke sounded unfamiliar:

"Of course you don't need to pay it back, just keep it for yourselves. Don't worry, our company doesn't need your money."

After hearing the stylist's explanation, Zhou Zongyun was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

He received a bonus of over three thousand yuan, a huge salary paid on the same day, and clothes worth thirty or forty thousand yuan were given away as gifts. He had never experienced such a positive work experience before.

Before signing with Juyu as a live streamer, he and Yuyu were both commercial models for a subsidiary of Xinghan, usually shooting main images for clothing brands. They only had the opportunity to walk the runway in small fashion shows on rare occasions. This was his first time facing hundreds of thousands of online viewers on such a large live streaming platform.

Facing seven or eight cameras in the audience, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of relief.

Today's theme for them is summer by the sea. Zhou Zongyun is wearing a brown shirt with three or four buttons undone and beige striped beach shorts.

With the official promotional activities last night, the number of viewers stabilized at around 280,000 as soon as the broadcast started, and the traffic was no less than yesterday.

Today his movements were even more powerful than yesterday, and he won several times in the gift-giving segment, getting selected to dance more than ten times.

Even after the broadcast ended, he was still in a daze, as if he hadn't quite come to his senses.

Just as Zhou Zongyun stepped out of the live broadcast room, he bumped into Yu Yu, who was coming to get her makeup done. Both of them had an indescribable awkward expression on their faces.

Instead, Yu Yu spoke first in a low voice: "Brother Ruan asked me to secretly take pictures of Juyu's stylist and show them to him. Did you take them?"

Zhou Zongyun shook his head.

Having experienced such good treatment from Giant Entertainment, he would rather keep delaying than betray the information.

Yu Yu breathed a sigh of relief and leaned closer, saying, "I didn't take any pictures either. I told Brother Ruan that Juyu would disable the camera function on the device when they were doing their makeup, so don't let it slip."

The two were chatting quietly, neither of them noticing the large group of people approaching at the end of the corridor—

In response to the competitor's infiltration, Fang Zhuo and Deng Jiaqiang have prepared three or four public relations plans in the past two days, but after waiting for a day and a night, they still haven't received any negative press releases.

On his way to the live stream, he saw the two furtive figures from a distance. However, the loyalty ratings above their heads were no longer 1 and 2, but instead displayed as [Loyalty: 5].

It seems Ruan Zihan didn't pay enough.

As Fang Zhuo brushed past the two, he coughed lightly and, as expected, saw the two young anchors' expressions of fear and guilt.

Zhou Zongyun quickly bowed and called out "President Fang," then saw the assistant behind him hand him a large box of fruit from a bag.

"Go home early after the broadcast. The company doesn't encourage working overtime."

Zhou Zongyun's guilt and inner turmoil had reached their peak. He spent five days in this state of anxiety. During this time, no matter what messages President Ruan sent to urge him, he and Yu Yu always brushed them off with the excuse that Juyu's confidentiality measures were too good.

On the morning the competition began, Ruan Zihan sent seven or eight voice messages, beating him mercilessly and issuing a firm ultimatum in the group chat:

[Useless! Everyone knows there are terminal jammers in the dressing room, so why don't you two just wait outside for the stylist to come out?]

Forget it, I can't rely on your brains.

[Once I get both of you into the top six in the next couple of days, you two need to relay to me the daily filming schedule for the Giant Entertainment short drama, understand?]

It took Zhou Zongyun a long time to reply with "Received". He closed the chat interface and took a few deep breaths.

The popularity of the Juyu Group Broadcast Competition mode has been widely discussed on the entire Star Network, with even the least popular streamers gathering thousands of fans.

The moment the live stream started on the sixth day, the number of viewers immediately surged to a peak that the previous five days had not reached, with nearly 400,000 viewers on a single platform alone.

The large screen in front of them displayed real-time comments from five different platforms. Each of Xingyu's live streaming platforms was a competitor, and Zhou Zongyun didn't know how Juyu had managed to get the other platforms to compromise on this simultaneous live streaming model.

It seems that as long as the money is right, even such a long-established live streaming platform can make concessions.

The barrage of comments was so fast that you could only see afterimages. Before the competition even started, all sorts of luxurious and exaggerated gift effects appeared one after another at the bottom of the screen.

Fang Zhuo, holding a microphone, briefly explained the rules for the first round:

"Please bear with us. The first day of the competition will still be conducted in six groups. Each host in each group will have six minutes for a dance performance and a time to solicit votes. The vote-soliciting segment will be conducted in three rounds."

"The ranking list will be updated in real time, and all viewers can view the overall ranking and add gifts at any time."

"The official ranking of all votes for the six groups of thirty anchors will be announced at 9 p.m. tonight. Only the top twenty will be able to enter tomorrow's blind voting round."